October 11, 2005

Surveillance Cameras Increasingly Used in United States

One of the first things detectives now do at a crime scene is conduct a sweep for surveillance video that might have captured the incident or the perpetrator, public and private law enforcement officials say. A video security firm in California estimates that there are now 26 million surveillance cameras in the United States generating more than four billion hours of video every week. Footage can now be examined for facial features, tattoos, personal mannerisms, jewelry and clothing as well as the license plate, make, model, weight and headlight pattern of a passing car, experts say. Image blurring can often be eliminated, and there is a process called frame averaging in which multiple frames can be blended to achieve one clear picture.

Security Camera New Star Witness, Washington Post, October 8, 2005.